Limbo
by salvainterra
Summary: When he hit that switch, he felt electrified from the inside out. Surely, he was dead. But when he opened his eyes again, he was face to face with a golden-eyed, white haired ghost, in a space in-between dimensions of life and death. He was offered a way out, but at what cost? AU


**Enjoy.**

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><p>Danny peered into the shadowy interior of the huge machine bolted into the lab wall. It was pretty ominous for something that didn't work. His eyes flitted around, taking in the wires strewn all over the floor and the odd machinery paneling on the sides. This thing certainly had the air of something designed to tear open a hole in the barrier between worlds. His parents were disappointed it hadn't worked, devastatingly so, but Danny wasn't so certain that it was as good an idea as they claimed. If they opened a gateway between the two worlds, wouldn't it be easier for the ghosts to get through?<p>

"Well? Are you going to check it out?"

Danny turned from the portal, to look at the two people down in the basement-turned-lab with him. His two best friends, one looking nervous and the other looking highly anticipatory, also were looking at the machine, though not as fixedly as him.

"I don't know Sam, my parents were pretty high strung about this for a while..."

His Goth friend rolled her eyes, holding up an expensive-looking camera.

"How many opportunities are you going to get to stand in a possibly otherworldly portal, Danny? C'mon, this'll be a great one for my scrapbook. Think about all the cool stuff you might see deeper in there!"

The boy tilted his head back towards the portal, considering. He sighed, finally relenting.

"Fine, fine. But only for a minute. We aren't supposed to be down here in the first place."

Grumbling slightly, Danny pulled on the jumpsuit he was supposed to wear All the time down here, figuring it might help him a little. He felt slightly more secure with it on.

"Dude."

Tucker snapped a picture with his ever-present PDA, grinning. His expression said 'blackmail material' more clearly than any words. Danny rolled his eyes at the technophile and started towards the machine. Sam stopped him and tore off the sticker of his dad's face, grimacing at it.

"Wouldn't wanna have that neon thing in the scrapbook picture. Go ahead, Danny!"

He took a deep breath and walked quickly, wanting to get this over with. One he got to the back of the machine, he could hear the humming. He hadn't made sure it was turned off before going in. The hair on the back of his neck stood up and he jolted as a bright light blinded him.

"Sorry Danny!"

He blinked away the spots and saw Sam, snapping pictures of him, now without the flash on. He sighed and relaxed slightly. Nothing was wrong. He was just being paranoid.

"Okay, I'm coming back out. This thing is freaky."

"I second that!"

Danny chuckled at Tucker's words and picked his way through the wiring on the floor, heading back to the opening. He saw something jutting out on the wall, and squinted, trying to make it out. With his eyes not focused on his steps, he got his foot tangled in wires, and fell, reaching out to balance himself against the wall. His hand hit something that gave with a little pressure, a click echoing in the cave-like structure. A millisecond later, pain.

He screamed as what he could only guess as hundreds of volts of electricity surged through him and the portal, and all he could see was white for a moment. Then everything was dark, like a long blink, and when his vision worked again, he was eye to eye with a ghost.

He yelped, tumbling backwards, feeling lighter than usual. The ghost in front of him had blurred features, glowing golden eyes (horrified, Danny noticed the entire eye was gold, with no pupils) and snow colored hair standing out most intensely. His expression was a sullen one, and he emanated a light white glow.

"Took you long enough."

His voice was echoey and vaguely familiar in a very distant way, and, oddly enough, resigned. Danny glanced around, trying to figure out why everything was so quiet. He was still in the portal, but now... One end still pointed towards his basement, where two worried and frantic figures stood, but the entrance was covered by a translucent coat of green, making Sam and Tucker seem like silhouettes. The other end was also covered with green, but he could just barely see a shadowy green landscape where the dead end of the portal should have been. The sheets of transparent green cast odd, rippling reflections onto the interior metal walls. The odd patterns reminded Danny of the way sunlight reflected through the water onto a pool floor, but swirlier. He gaped. The ghost sighed.

"Are you done?"

His head snapped back to the ghost, eyes wide. Like everyone else in Amity, he knew about the few ghosts that got by the barrier every couple of years. They immediately searched around, causing chaos and death. If his parents weren't around, there would have been a lot more damage done. Everyone knew to stay as far away from ghosts as possible if you weren't Jack or Maddie Fenton, and here he was, only feet away from one. He tried not to let his terror show, but he knew from his parent's lectures that the ghost could probably sense it anyways. Feed off it, even.

Surprisingly enough, all the ghost did was sigh again, like an irritated teenager dealing with a small, unrepentant child. Danny found his voice.

"W-what happened?"

He flinched as the unearthly golden eyes glared at him in a mixture of irritation and exasperation.

"You haven't already figured it out? Take a look around."

Danny stared at him strangely, and then hesitantly inspected his surroundings closer. The thing jutting out of the wall was... A switch? Labeled helpfully as 'On/Off'. Oh.

His parents had put in two power switches, as a safeguard. Really safe.

His eyes trailed down from the switch to the ground, where a body lay, crumpled in a heap. Wait.

That looked like... him.

He stumbled over to it, trying to reach out and move the(his) body, turn it over, prove it to himself that it wasn't really him laying there, unmoving-

His hand passed right through the body like it wasn't even there, like he wasn't even there.

Like a ghost.

"What- What?" He felt way too calm for this kind of revelation.

The real ghost behind him spoke again, this time curiosity lacing his voice.

"You're in limbo. Don't they teach you about that?"

"Limbo?"

"That spot between life and death. Y'know, when you die, but you have to wait for all your life to bleed out of you before you can really die?"

His head was spinning, and he couldn't force his mind to wrap itself around the concept that the ghost's words were true. Meanwhile, the specter only got more curious.

"Really, they don't teach you guys about Limbo in Tero*? Weird..."

"Why are you here? Wh- What do you want?"

The ghost's eyes widened, and then narrowed into golden yellow slits.

"Seriously? You don't recognize me or anything?"

"...Should I?"

"Yeah, I mean, I'm your Fantomo**. Er, 'Ghost'."

"_What?! _I'm dead?"

"No, I _literally_ just told you you were in Limbo. ...Wait, do homas*** not even know about the Link?"

At Danny's blank look, the ghost sighed, crossing his semi-solid legs in the air to hover in a pretzel position.

"Every human is linked to a Fantomo? They have lives reflecting what the other wants? Fantomos slip through overlaps in the boundaries sometimes to try and replace or kill their human to become extremely powerful and immortal? None of this ringing a bell?"

Danny tried to string together the pieces to get a full picture of what the ghost boy was saying.

"Wait, so how are you here? Are you trying to kill me?"

Cue another eye roll.

"Well, I was perfectly fine living out a normal existence in the Zone, but no, you had to go and get yourself killed. I might have killed you just to live, but..."

Quicker than his eyes could track, the ghost moved next to him and his possible corpse, and he flinched belatedly as the other boy's hand plunged into the- his(?) limp (dead?) body, not making contact the same way he had failed to.

"...I can't do any more than you."

That was a relief, if bittersweet. He'd still die, but at least his death wouldn't signify a reign of terror by this ghost and any others who passed through here.

"So... You're here because I'm dying? All people spend their... 'Limbos' with their ghost, dying together?"

He really shouldn't feel so calm. Accepting.

"No. The opposite, really. Most people's Limbos are merely an instant, or even if they're substantially long, the 'ghost' won't be able to find a gap between worlds all, and even if they do, they can't track down their humans in time to do anything. When the human dies, the F... ghost weakens considerably outside the Zone, and in the Zone they no longer grow stronger. They don't die. Something to do with the excess mortal energy from the Link, that's what makes ghosts stronger. At least that's what my mentor said."

Danny resisted the urge to ask about the mentor and the vaguely familiar slang (had he heard it from Tucker?), focusing on the former part of the explanation.

"Wait, why's my limbo so long? And how'd you find me if it's impossible?"

"Well, you're surrounded by ectoplasm, a natural conductor. So, even though you just electrocuted yourself with enough energy to short out a city block, it's keeping you alive, but slowly killing you at the same time. Only ghosts can survive in pure ectoplasm, after all."

His mind disturbingly clear for someone slowly dying (shock?), Danny zeroed in on his unanswered question.

"How'd you find me though? And why are you fading too if ghosts don't die at the same time as their human?"

The ghost huffed a scornful sigh.

"Because you, genius, apparently decided to go into a machine that tears a portal into an alternate dimension, and helpfully smear your DNA all over the ON button, turning it on and giving it coordinates to rip open the portal, right where your DNA was in the Zone. Aka, me. Let me dumb that down a bit. I'm in limbo because I also just got electrocuted by whatever ridiculous amounts of volts, because the portal opened on top of me. With me inside too."

"But... Where's _your _body?"

"Unlike your freaky blood and flesh stuff, solid ectoplasm can't handle large amounts of electricity. Liquid ectoplasm can conduct it, but solid ectoplasm... Vaporizes. And diffuses into the surrounding ectoplasmic gas/liquid. So, my body is scattered around the room in various particles. I'll be in Limbo until the extra electric charges fade from the ectoplasm."

Both boys scrunched up their faces in distaste, Danny paling considerably. They fade out of existence in Limbo at the same time. Ironic.

There was temporary silence as they both stared at Danny's body, their limbs fading to white and then clear around the edges.

"I don't want to die."

"Me either."

"..."

"... I... I read about something in a book in a friend's library... It's more of a fairytale than anything but..."

"What is it?"

"Well. A way to survive this, I guess. The story was about something really old and vague called a Binding. It was about two shades in Limbo who became whole again by combining or something. I didn't get to read much of it, and most of it was like a big riddle."

Danny's doubt and ingrained fear of ghosts must've shown on his face, because he looked away.

"Yeah."

Swallowing thickly, Danny looked from the ghost to his friends, frozen silhouettes, and back. He pushed aside the constant warnings about manipulative ghosts he had heard over the years, and stood, walking closer to where the ghost hovered. (He didn't doubt that he could probably also ignore gravity, but he didn't want or know how to right now.) An almost completely translucent hand was offered, sideways, to shake. Golden eyes scrutinized him, like they were trying to determine why. He did a lame shoulder shrug, feeling only calm and determined.

"I'm gonna die anyways, I guess. We can try."

Without a word, the ghost's freezing transparent hand closed around his own in a handshake.

There was a beat of silence where they both tried to figure out what was supposed to happen next, but then sparks of green electricity and the swirling liquid around them appeared to condense, around Danny's physical body. He had to shield his eyes when the sparks glowed bright enough to obscure vision, and with a tug like a rope anchored in his center was being pulled, his perspective blinked out, and then changed. He looked down at his hands, hands that were wearing the jumpsuit gloves but glowed eerily and were the wrong color.

He stumbled to his feet, and then clumsily tromped forward, leaning on the wall for support, and shoving through the green barrier of swirling ectoplasm, where his friends(?) waited, still.

He wasn't prepared for the pain that stung every cell and nerve as he fell through the portal entrance and out of Limbo. It was like being re-electrocuted, but with the addition of ice fire burning through his veins. His friends later told him that they had only heard his first scream shift into a higher pitch, without the gap in time he had experienced.

When his vision cleared, he was on the ground in front of the portal. Sam and Tucker stood three paces away, their stances odd. It was like they wanted to rush to his aid, but fear and worry conflicted in their eyes. Sam broke the silence.

"...Danny?"

Why was she asking? Of course it was him.

But instead of saying these reassuring words, his body moved with a will of it's own and carried him to the nearest mirror, a grimy one pegged up on the lab wall.

His reflection was one he barely recognized. His hand touched his hair, now a snow white like the ghost's. His jumpsuit had its colors reversed, and his whole body glowed ethereally. But his eyes were what he focused on. His pupils blazed neon green, the otherworldly golden shadowing the clear blue underneath, creating the illusion of green, while his normally white sclera also was tinged light yellow.

"Danny, are you..."

The unspoken word hung between them, and, absurdly, all Danny could think was, _I can't be dead, my parents will kill me. _He could already hear them moving to help him, his fathers heavy footsteps racing to get to the basement door.

_Not giving up existence just yet, thanks._

The thought that didn't belong to him curled around his mind as if a signal to what happened next. The numbing cold in his veins receded, and ectoplasm dissolved off of him in whisps, dissipating into the air. Once the green swirls of ectoplasm melted off into the air, he was left in his normal clothes, hair black, and the gold coating over his eyes fading slowly, leaving them blue. His body temperature rose, warming him, and his energy drained away as well. He fell over into his friends' grip, and slid his eyes shut.

The last thing he heard before slipping into unconsciousness was his parents' concerned voices and another mental whisper.

_Thanks for the save, Danny._

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><p><strong>I used Esperanto as the old language of ghosts, like Latin for English speakers, so there's stuff named for Esperanto origins, but in this story ghosts (fantomos) speak in television static and various other otherworldly sounds indecipherable to humans (unless you have the handy dandy Ghost Gabber). Danny can understand because they were in Limbo, where thoughts speak louder than words andor language barriers. Unless they're proper nouns.**

***= Earth**

****= Ghost**

*****= Humans**

**This was pretty experimental for me, but there were just so many ways this could have gone in the show, and so I created my own for reasons. AU, I guess, where there's different rules to the other dimension and every human is sorta responsible for every ghost? I have a lot of ideas about this, but I figured that the Beginning was probably a good place to start. **

**Please review and tell me your thoughts!**


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